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|Image= [[File:Gamma_Delta.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1919|01|24}}
|College= [httphttps://www.purdue.edu/ Purdue University]
|Location= West Lafayette, IN
|Homepage= [httphttps://chapterspurdue.kappakappagammakappa.org/gammadelta/ Gamma Delta Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Gamma_Delta Media related to Gamma Delta Chapter]}}
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'''2,787 initiates (as of June 2018 https://wiki.kkg.org/index.php/Gamma%20Chi)'''
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We also volunteered at local elementary schools by reading to students through their Read to Succeed program. Our chapter also donated holiday treat bags and books to these elementary schools throughout the year. We focused on reaching out to our local community--volunteering our time and funds to programs in our area. Our chapter finds this very important because we can grow and maintain relationships with the children and programs throughout the years.
==highlights of 2018==
The Gamma Delta Chapter has had a very successful 2018. We raised $2004 for United Way of Greater Lafayette and had over 2400 volunteer hours as a chapter. We were awarded the Gracious Living and House Board awards at the Kappa National Convention during the summer of 20218. We welcomed and initiated 44 new members in the fall - our biggest pledge class to date. We are looking forward to an even more successful 2019.
Purdue University is ever changing, just like the world around us, and so is our chapter. We believe our chapter's overall nature had a big shift this past year as we began to focus more on mental health in our chapter by adding a zen room to our home and electing a few chapter members as confidants that other members can reach out to in case they might need help.
==Highlights of 2020==
Chapter Summary
Summarize the previous calendar year, scholarships, group honors/awards, Convention awards, traditions, special events, philanthropic involvement, chapter goals, and how your chapter operations changed because of COVID-19 (e.g., how did it affect recruitment, initiation, etc. Were events/activities held virtually? Due to COVID-19 and the different circumstances, our Gamma Delta chapter had a very different year. However, these changes did not stop our chapter from coming together, making our sisterhood stronger than ever. This year, Gamma Delta won the Sally Moore Nitschke Lifelong Education Award. In addition to that, myself along with our Vice President of Organization were awarded academic scholarships from Kappa. Although we could not be at convention this year, we were fortunate enough to watch different sessions virtually. Even though the spring semester of 2020 ended early, we were still able to fit in a few exciting events. In February, our President, Vice President Standards, and Marshal were able to visit Butler University and have one our new members initiated there because she was unable to attend our initiation ceremony in the fall. Their chapter was extremely welcoming and helpful and it was great to experience another chapter’s initiation ceremony. We also had our Spring Spontaneous dance which was a Valentine’s Day themed called “Kappa Krush” in February. This was a fun and bonding event organized by our Event Chairmen which ended up being our last in person event of the year. After our school, Purdue University made the decision to hold the rest of the semester online, we made sure to still hold virtual chapter council and whole chapter meetings weekly. We were extremely lucky to still have our Kappa Leadership Consultant meet with our chapter council virtually both one-on-one with each member and with the council as a whole. She was helpful and gave amazing advice as we approached a year of uncertainty and newness due to the virus. Before the year ended, our Education Chairman made sure to read senior spotlights at chapter, and had us write letters to the seniors. Our Public Relations Chairman posted about each senior, their favorite memory of Kappa, and what their plans for the future were. As the next school year started, several changes were made to the Kappa house because of the circumstances. Our Treasurer worked with Kappa and parents to change the price of bills according to the new changes. We made sure to follow CDC guidelines by making sure everyone socially distanced and wore masks when not in their rooms. Our house chairman worked hard at re-doing room placements to make sure rooms did not contain too many girls and changed one of our study rooms into a quarantine room for girls that needed to stay there. Our kitchen was changed from having buffet style to ordering food and picking it up. Members who did not live in the house and guests were not permitted into the house. As the recruitment process started, we prepared for its entirety to be virtual. Our Recruitment Chairman worked extremely hard at teaching the chapter how the process would be and held several meetings explaining and doing run-throughs. Recruitment was held over zoom and involved breakout rooms so our sisters could talk to the Potential New Members one-on-one. Although the process was very different, we made sure to include videos our sisters and our house. Our Public Relations Chairman posted daily about Kappa and created room tour videos since the PNM’s were not able to visit the house. One of our sisters created her our mask business and made Kappa masks to all of our sisters to wear during this time and to class to promote safety and show our Kappa pride. We are so lucky to have gotten an amazing group of 40 New Members. Our New Member Chairman held a virtual Bid Day with the theme of “Falling in Love with Kappa”. She made sure to give exciting facts about our house and used breakout rooms so we could talk to the New Members virtually. Our New Member Chairman, held several virtual meetings with the New Members to guide them through their trainings. As the year went on and amidst the craziness, our goal as a Chapter Council was to keep our sisters safe, informed, and still promote sisterhood as much as we could. Our Standards Chairman held several virtual sisterhood events to boost morale and promote sisterhood. One of the most popular events she had was a pumpkin decorating contest for girls to decorate socially distanced in and outside of the house, and then our Public Relations Chairman posted the pumpkins on the Kappa Instagram for people to vote. The winners received Halloween goodie bags. Our House Chairman also planned fun events throughout the year including her creation of the owl scavenger hunt. She placed tiny owls around the house and gave clever Kappa riddles about their locations. She gave Kappa gear and prizes to the girls who found them. Our Events Chairman also planned different themed chapter meetings which caused our sisters to dress according to theme and keep their camera on the entire meeting. Our Vice President of Academics also implemented a new resource called the “Virtual Binder Room”. This resource contains different folders of note, study tips, quizzlets, past quizzes, and any other helpful study materials for all different majors. She created this so we can add any virtual academic materials we have to share with one another to help us study better. Our philanthropy looked very different this year as well. Since we were not able to have an in-person philanthropy event, our Philanthropy Chairman created a “Skip-A-Meal”. She partnered with our campus Chipotle and for anyone who purchased a meal on October 27 and mentioned Kappa, 33% of their meal would go towards our fundraiser. She also incorporated Crowd Change which is a virtual fundraiser. Her goal was for each girl to raise $50 to meet our goal. This was a great success and we were able to raise$3,032.62. Throughout the year, I as the Marshal gave Kappa Fun Facts and suggested several Kappa virtual webinars and resources that our sisters could take advantage of. As initiation approached, our overnight, three part ceremony was transformed into the 40 minute virtual ceremony. I learned from several trainings on how to conduct this and received amazing help from our Ritual and History Specialist. I made sure to still hold an Inspiration Week but modified it to be virtual. This consisted of assigning girls new members to text everyday with their favorite quote, song, a Starbucks gift card, or simply a nice message to brighten their day. I also had the girls write letters to the New Members and was still able to bring the sanitized letters and flowers to the new Initiates. The initiation ceremony was still as special and meaningful with all the ritual components. Several alumni were able to attend and it went very well. After the ceremony, the new initiate’s big sisters dropped off “Kappa Kristmas” gifts to their dorms in a socially distanced manner. Throughout the year, our Panhellenic Delegate and Risk Chairman made sure to keep us updated and informed with new rules and safety tips which helped us tremendously. Our President, Bella Brown truly was amazing this term and was constantly making sure our sisters were safe and informed and made sure everything ran as smoothly as it could. She handled all the uncertainty and new changes with grace and kept a positive attitude which reflected on the entire chapter. We are so thankful for all her guidance amongst this crazy year.
Chapter Philanthropy
What organization does the chapter support? Our chapter splits our fundraising three ways. We give 1/3 to Reading is Fundamental, 1/3 to United Way, and 1/3 to the Kappa Kappa Gamma foundation.
Why did the chapter choose this organization? We chose this because all organizations align with Kappa’s values. We have also been donating to these organizations for years so we wanted to continue the tradition.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
How did your chapter include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in your programming this year? (e.g., adding a DEI officer, philanthropy events, social media awareness campaign chapter training, etc.). This year, we spent a lot of time focusing on diversity, equality, and inclusion. When our LC visited “virtually” she explained to the entire Chapter Council how important it is and gave us several helpful resources to share with the rest of our chapter. Our Public Relations Chairman was very active in posting about diversity and equality, especially during the BLM movement. As school started, we had a programming night about this and made sure to keep our sisters informed and supplied with resources on how to be more inclusive especially with the current events. Our Recruitment Chairman also held a meeting about this before recruitment started to emphasis the importance and how we could incorporate this into our one-on-one conversations with the Potential New Members.
Sesquicentennial Celebration
How did your chapter celebrate Kappa’s 150th anniversary? Share what you have done this year. For this incredibly special year, we made sure to celebrate it the best way we could. Our Education Chairman brought Kappa goodies for the house on the day of and gave an amazing speech about Kappa during chapter on the week of the anniversary. I gave Kappa fun facts every week of chapter to help educate our sisters even more about our special fratnerity and had every girl tune into Kappa’s live Sesquicentennial Founder’s Day Celebration. Our Public Relations Chairman posted several pictures and facts about Kappa, our house transformation, and alumni throughout the years.
Photographs
Are there any interesting photos from this year to share? e.g., screen shots of virtual meetings, pictures of chapter events that followed all public health guidelines (mask wearing, physical distancing, etc), pictures of masks, drive-thru vid days, etc.
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==Highlights of 2021==
During the past year, the Gamma Delta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma has been extremely busy and hardworking. Our chapter has grown, experienced change, and found new ways to implement our values. From our chapter we had sixteen members lead our chapter council, each member brought new creative ideas and boosted morale. The first semester of our chapter council term was faced with more precautions and obstacles due to the pandemic compared to the second semester. With events being canceled, it was difficult at times to implement a form of normalcy. Throughout the months of January, February, March, and April the majority of events were held virtual. The events held virtually were chapter meetings, sisterhood events, panhellenic respect events, and webinars. With living in the house, members wore masks throughout common areas and were tested bi-weekly. Meals were served from house staff and gatherings for meals in the kitchen were limited. No social formality events took place throughout the first semester, but we were able to have a philanthropic event. Typically our chapter hosts a “Wing Night” to raise money at the house, however with the pandemic we hosted the fundraiser at a local Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant on campus. Philanthropic events on Purdue’s campus were limited due to social distancing guidelines, a majority of them were held virtually. We had members from different pledge classes attend other organization’s philanthropic events. With members attending other organization’s philanthropic events we were able to gain awareness.
As a chapter council we developed different types of goals, some of the goals included maintaining engagement and improving communication. Some ways we were able to stay involved on campus and show support to other organizations was through attending philanthropic events and respect events sponsored from Purdue’s Panhellenic Community. Respect events varied in topics of discussion from sexual assualt, inclusion, equity, and health advocation. Members from our chapter would attend these events to gain information and increase awareness for mental health, wellness, sexual well-being, racial/cultural awareness, and respect. During chapter meetings, members would share tips and information they learned. As a chapter council and chapter we improved communication by extending the duration of meeting times. By extending the time, we were able to discuss more topics, ideas, and any obstacles. Since the pandemic, our chapter has faced challenges of providing some sort of normalcy. As a chapter, we were able to maintain living in the sorority house by following social distancing guidelines and hosting chapter meetings through zoom. With events being canceled, our chapter focused on growing sisterhood. Our bond of sisterhood strengthened through being quarantined together. Instead of having a negative approach, members had a positive approach and looked to benefit from the situation.
For the first semester of the school year, our chapter supported the local organization of Reading is Fundamental. Some ways members were able to show support was through volunteering at the elementary school, Murdock Elementary in Lafayette, and by donating books. With the pandemic, volunteering and working with the students was not an option, instead members decided to donate books. Chapter members encouraged other organizations to donate books, by donating books we were able to educate younger members in our local community. For the second semester, the chapter was able to support Kappa’s philanthropy by hosting a “Kolor Run,” the event was a 5k run around Purdue’s campus. As a chapter we were able to raise over $12,000 for Mental Health America. A representative from Mental Health America was able to attend a chapter meeting and talk about the awareness for mental health. Chapter members decided on the organization of Mental Health America for the proceeds to be donated. Moving forward with philanthropic events, as a chapter we are hoping to spread more awareness of mental health and host an event in person where members from campus can attend.
Our chapter included diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in our programming this year by appointing a DEI officer. The person who was appointed as a DEI officer held a position on chapter council as Panhellenic Delegate. The communication was efficient because she was able to communicate events and educational programs happening on campus to our chapter. We also hosted events virtually educating members on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Members were required to attend chapter training for DEI and we posted on social media to raise awareness. As a chapter council we delegated younger members to a committee of diversity, equity, and inclusion education. Moving forward as a chapter, we will continue to attend events, spread awareness, and have open communication.
Chapter operations did not change too drastically, however finding normalcy at times was a struggle. The recruitment process was split between virtual and in-person, as a house we were able to host an in-person work week. During the time of work week we were able to discuss the recruitment process, learn chants and songs, and discuss the importance of our values. When recruitment rounds were in-person at the house all members wore masks and social distanced. During the last two months of the semester, we were able to initiate 43 members in-person. With initiation ceremonies being held in-person, every person in attendance wore a mask and social distance guidelines were implemented. For members living-in, the Vice President of Organizations, hosted sisterhood events of trivia, pumpkin decorating, and sign making for our philanthropic event.
As a chapter council and chapter, we grew in communication, education, and worked to handle change. Our chapter members worked hard to adapt to change, and have open discussions about current events.
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